German Articles for Beginners

☰ List of all topics in the level A1

This lesson contains topics:

German nominative case
Definite article in German
Indefinite article in German
Negation with "kein"
Use of the word "das"
German compound nouns
Sentence structure in German

A note for the visitors who have directly landed on this page from the search engine: this page is part of the step-by-step German learning course at level A1. To see the complete explanation of German articles, please visit the page German Articles under the section Summary of German Grammar.

German nominative case

Before studying German articles, understanding grammatical cases is essential. The initial grammatical case is the nominative case (in German, der Nominativ), which is also referred to as the subjective case in English. The subject in a sentence is a noun or pronoun that carries out an action or has information provided about it within the sentence's context.

Subject	Verb	Complement
Der König	ist	reich.
The king	is	rich.
Der Bäcker	ist	arm.
The baker	is	poor.

The king and baker are subjects in the above sentences and thus are in the subjective or nominative case. In German, the king is der Nominativ, and the same is the case for the baker.

Nominativ-Ergänzung Subject	Verb	Qualitative-Ergänzung Complement
Der König	ist	reich.
Der Bäcker	ist	arm.

Grammatical cases are a crucial aspect of the German language. In German, both definite and indefinite articles decline according to the respective grammatical case.

This lesson covers the fundamental versions of German articles in their unaltered state, i.e., articles in the nominative case. In future lessons, we will progressively explore additional grammatical cases and their respective declensions.

The other three grammatical cases are:

Definite article in German

In German, the definite article is called der bestimmte Artikel.

As discussed in the previous lesson, German nouns have three types of genders. Contrary to the English language, where the single definite article "the" is used for both genders, German has different forms of the definite article for each of its three genders.

der for masculine nouns, for example, der Mann (the man),

die for feminine nouns, e.g., die Frau (the woman),

das for neuter nouns, for instance, das Messer (the knife).

The plural form of the definite article is easy; it's always die. Please see the following examples:

der Mann (singular) , die Männer (plural)

die Frau (singular) , die Frauen (plural)

das Messer (singular) , die Messer (plural)

The definite articles "der," "die," and "das," as well as their plural form "die," undergo changes (decline) in the accusative and dative cases, which we will explore in upcoming lessons.

Indefinite article in German

Der unbestimmte Artikel

In contrast to English, which possesses two indefinite articles, "a" and "an," the German language employs a single indefinite article, ein. Nevertheless, it's important to note that the German indefinite article comes in two different forms for masculine, neuter, and feminine genders.

For masculine and neuter nouns: ein
for example, ein Mann (a man) ,
ein Messer (a knife) ,
ein Mädchen (a girl) .
For feminine nouns, eine
for example, eine Frau (a woman) .

The following video summarizes the topic of German definite and indefinite articles.

Negation with "kein"

"Kein" is not an article; it’s a negation word, signifying "not a" or "not any." Nevertheless, its usage is akin to that of indefinite articles like "ein" and "eine."

Below are a few sample sentences that utilize the negation "kein."

Hier ist ein Mann. (Here is a man.)

Hier ist kein Mann. (There is no man here.)

Hier ist ein Messer. (Here is a knife.)

Hier ist kein Messer. (There is no knife here.)

Hier ist ein Mädchen. (Here is a girl.)

Hier ist kein Mädchen. (There is no girl here.)

Hier ist eine Frau. (Here is a woman.)

Hier ist keine Frau. (There is no woman here.)

Warum ist keine Frau hier ? (Why is no woman here?)

The negation word "kein" also has a plural declination, and it is always "Keine" in the nominative case.

Die Hunde sind keine Katzen.
Dogs are not cats.

der Hund (dog), die Hunde (dogs)

sind (are)

die Katze (cat), die Katzen (cats)

The word "das"

Apart from its usage as a definite article, the word das is also used as a demonstrative pronoun, signifying "this" and "that". In the colloquial German, das is employed for all three genders, for example:

Das ist Familie Müller. (This is Mueller family.)

Das ist Herr Sebastian Müller. (This is Mr. Sebastian Mueller.)

Er ist Arzt. (He is doctor.)

Das ist Frau Lisa Müller. (This is Mrs. Lisa Mueller.)

Sie ist Zahnärztin. (She is dentist.)

Doktor Sebastian Müller ist auch Sozialarbeiter. (Doctor Sebastian Mueller is also social worker/welfare worker.)

Frau Doktor Lisa Müller ist auch Professorin an der Medizinuniversität. (Doctor Lisa Müller is also (working as a) professor at the medical university.)

German compound nouns

Combining two nouns to create a compound noun is a widely observed linguistic phenomenon in several European languages, including German. In the above example "der Zahn" and "der Arzt" are two separate nouns, and they combine to form a single noun "der Zahnarzt".

A compound noun, created by combining two nouns, takes its article from the second noun in the combination. For instance, in the previous example, the noun "der Zahnarzt" (dentist) derives its article from the second word in the combination, namely "der Arzt."

"Die Medizinuniversität" is the combination of two nouns, "die Medizin" and "die Universität". It gets its article "die" from the last noun, "die Universität".

But just recently, we learned a sentence where the noun Universität uses the article "der". (i.e., Frau Doktor Lisa Müller ist auch Professorin an der Medizinuniversität.)

The Medical University (Medizinuniversität), despite having the article "der," remains a feminine noun. This change in the article from "die" to "der" is a result of the preposition "an," which translates to "at" in English. Certain prepositions also cause the article to decline, and we shall discuss in the coming lessons how articles decline with certain cases and prepositions. In this lesson, it is just a hint that you should be ready for what's coming next.

A combination (compound noun) can also be formed by joining an article and a noun, as in the above example, "der Sozialarbeiter".

In the case of "Sozialarbeiterin", it would be "die Sozialarbeiterin", , or in the case of "Sozialgeld", it would be "das Sozialgeld" (social money) , because the last word in the combination is "das Geld" (money).

Some other examples of compound nouns are:

das Autobahnkreuz (motorway junction)
die Autobahn (motorway / highway) + das Kreuz (cross)

die Einbahnstraße (one-way street)
die Einbahn (one-way) + die straße (street / road)

der Zebrastreifen (cross-walk / zebra crossing)
das Zebra (zebra) + der Streifen (band / strip)

die Tiefgarage (underground parking lot )
tief (deep) + die Garage (garage)

To learn more about traffic system in Germany, please visit routetogermany.com/drivingingermany.

The following is the video summary of the topic compound nouns.

Sentence structure in German

In the previous lesson, we gained an understanding of the fundamental components of a German sentence. Presently, we can delve into the organization of sentences in the German language, which bears resemblance to English. Here are some key points to note:

The subject takes the lead as the initial element in a sentence.
Following the subject, the verb occupies the second position.
The verb is subsequently accompanied by either a solitary direct object or a more intricate complement structure.

We can see this in examples from the previous lesson.

Subject	Verb	Complement
Der König	ist	reich.
The king	is	rich.
Der Bäcker	ist	arm.
The baker	is	poor.

Sometimes a particle is placed before the object, but it doesn't change the position numbers of the elements because the particles occupy no position. In other words, if the particle is placed before the object, then the particle position is zero. The object is still the first element, and the verb is the second element. Please see the following examples.

Vielleicht der König ist sehr reich. (Maybe the king is very rich.)
Und der Bäcker ist arm. (And the baker is poor.) Okay, aber die Milch ist immer weiß. (Ok, but the milk is always white.)

In the above examples, the words "vielleicht" and "und" are particles, and their position in the sentence is not one but zero.

Vocabulary building

Eine Katze ist kein Hund und ein Zebra ist kein Pferd.
A cat is not a dog and a zebra is not a horse.

Ein Ei ist kein Ball aber der Thunfisch ist ein Fisch.
An egg is not a ball but the tuna is a fish.

die Katze (cat)

der Hund (dog)

das Zebra (zebra)

das Pferd (horse)

das Ei (egg)

der Ball (ball)

der Fisch (fish)

der Thunfisch (tuna)

New words

die Familie (family)

Herr (Mr.)

der Arzt (doctor)

die Ärztin (lady doctor)

die Frau (Mrs., woman)

der Zahnarzt (dentist / dental surgeon)

die Zahnärztin (female dentist / dental surgeon)

auch (also)

der Sozialarbeiter (social worker)

sozial (social)

der Arbeiter (worker)

die Arbeiterin (female worker)

die Medizinuniversität (medical university)

die Universität (university)

das Autobahnkreuz (motorway junction)

die Einbahnstraße (one-way street)

der Zebrastreifen (cross-walk / zebra crossing)

die Tiefgarage (underground parking lot )